1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved method for driving a gas discharge display panel, and more particularly, a method for stably driving a surface discharge or monolithic type gas discharge panel providing a wide operating margin.
2. Description of the Related Art
In gas discharge panels, known as plasma display panels, surface discharge or monolithic type display panels utilize lateral discharges between adjacent electrodes. Basically, as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,646,384, issued to F. M. Lay, in a monolithic gas discharge panel of this type, the electrodes are disposed only on one substrate of a pair of substrates and are separated by a dielectric layer or layers. The electrodes on opposite sides of a dielectric layer are arranged to intersect and the intersections define discharge cells. The pair of substrates oppose each other and define a gap or space filled with a discharge gas. This structure provides the advantages of alleviating the requirement of an accurate gap spacing and the realization of multi-color displays which are created by coating the internal surface of the non-electrode bearing substrate with an ultraviolet ray excitation type phosphor. With the structure of the conventional panel, however, satisfactory panel life and operating margin could not be obtained beacuse the dielectric layer is damaged by a concentration of the discharge current at portions of the dielectric layer corresponding to the edges of the electrodes.
To prevent damage to the dielectric layer and to assure long panel life and stable operation, the inventors of the present invention have developed a three-electrode type AC surface discharge panel having separated select (or write) and display cells, as disclosed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 640,579, filed Aug. 14, 1984, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,218 for GAS DISCHARGE PANEL AND METHOD FOR DRIVING SAME, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application. The panel structure disclosed in application Ser. No. 640,579 is called a three-electrode type AC surface discharge panel because each picture element, comprising a select cell and a display cell, is defined by the intersection of a select electrode with a pair of parallel display electrodes. The select cell is defined by the intersection of the select electrode and one of the display electrodes in the display electrode pair, and the display cell is defined by the space between the display electrodes adjacent to the select electrode. In addition to assuring long panel life and stable operation, a three-electrode type surface discharge panel provides an internal decoding function by employing multiple connections of the display electrode pairs, thereby simplifying the operation of driving the panel and the driving circuitry. However, the driving method disclosed in application Ser. No. 640,579 does not allow the panel to be addressed line-by-line if the display electrodes are multiply connected.